PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2622, 18 November 1915, Page 6

PATRIOTIC FUNDS

Y.M.C.A. APPEALS FOR AID MINISTER MAKES SUGGESTIONS

A deputation representing the Y.M.C.A. approached the Minister or Internal Affairs yesterday with a request that they-should be allowed to attend the meeting of representatives of the patriotic committees of New Zealand to be held hero 011 Friday morning for the purpose of urging tho claims of the Y.M.C.A. movement, which has a largo body of men working in tho interests of. soldiers at the front, for financial assistance from the funds.

Mr. Eussell informed the deputation that he was unable to make any promise that they would be allowed to attend at the meeting,, as that question would have to be settled by tho conference. But he suggested that as there had been a good deal of criticism on the part of the churches of the proposal lie had made for the holding of a national art union of pictures in aid of tho sick and wounded, and that as up till the present the churches as such had not taken any activo part in tho patriotic movement, he thought it would bo an excellent idea if they were, as a Young Men's Christian Association, to approach the churches, requesting the churches to organise for tho purpose of providing thorti with fundi, to assist- the association in the work tliey are engaged in at the front-. Ho was pleased to have the assurance of the deputation that their object was to assist the soldiers at the front in every way by • providing" comforts and so 011, and he had 110 doubt that as tbey were a Christian organisation their claims for support had only to be placed beforo the churches of the Dominion to command a very large measure of financial support.